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A clinical trial of one of the first tuberculosis vaccines to be developed in nearly 100 years has shown disappointing results in protecting children against the disease.

A paper published by the Lancet showed that the modified vaccinia Ankara virus expressing antigen 85A (MVA85A), the most advanced of 12 candidate vaccines currently in clinical trials, showed an efficacy rate of less than 20%.1

Hopes for the vaccine had been high, as previous small trials had shown that the vaccine generated a good immune response in adults.2

The only available vaccine against tuberculosis, BCG, first used in 1921, has highly variable results. It protects against …

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